I can't get the LiveATC Android app to work when connected to inflight WiFi on Southwest. Is it just me and now, or is this a general problem? Would they be blocking the feed? Other web browsing is fine.

What this means is that they've isolated the ports that iMessage (and possibly others) use, and are either blocking those, or allowing them for a fee. LiveATC probably got caught in it, unless you want to pay the $8 per day to have it with WiFi.

I was on WN1957 KLAS->KTUS 20140901 and I paid the $8 for "WiFi Internet Access". I note that "WiFi" by itself is nothing but having a connection to the Internet -- not a subset of it -- is what I paid for.

During my ground time I was able to experiment by switching back and forth between Southwest WiFi Internet Access and Verizon Wireless 4G-LTE Internet Access. (Big capital letters for emphassis.)

All of these worked fine on VZW and did not on SWA WiFi:Liveatc.net the Android app showed all channels as "pending".Google play store app downloadsVPN access

I *was* able to get to a liveatc feed source (icecast2 on a public IP) so there was nothing specific to blocking "ALL STREAMING", just e.g. liveatc.net.

I have sent SouthWest Airlines a friendly and informal letter to see what their response is. If they respond favorably I will post here. If they respond unfavorably we will escalate it.

Southwest Airlines has replied to me. They did not attempt to explain nor justify the blocking of these services, and they refunded my $8 in full.

Here is their note in full:

Quote

Dear Ehud,

We're sorry to learn that your recent inflight WiFi session was less than stellar. We assure you this was not representative of the high quality product we are proud to offer and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Since you were not able to take full advantage of the WiFi connection, we have refunded the $8.00 you paid for this service to the VISA ending in 8636.

We hope you will try our inflight WiFi again the next time you are onboard one of our WiFi-enabled aircraft.

Not unsurprising, really. In the long run, they probably saved money by routing your inquiry to some customer retention-like department that could refund the $8 rather than to someone who gets paid to implement traffic shaping (or make the decision to do so).